List of publications at Google Scholar
Optogenetics – the conferring of light sensitivity on the genetically encoded molecules, forms an emerging area with effective applications in neurobiology, synthetic biology and synthetic physiology. The approach that started using the naturally occurring signaling photoreceptors to monitor living neural circuitry, has since been further extended to accommodate "biologically-inspired design" of synthetic photoreceptors. It is of utmost importance to understand the signaling mechanism in already-existing natural photoreceptors to develop synthetic photoreceptors. Perhaps the best way to progress is to study their crystal structures, a branch recently described as “Structural Optogenetics”. Blue-light responsive LOV (Light-Oxygen-Voltage) domains, being one of the most-targeted design modules, my current research is involves kinetic and biophysical characterization of different photosensors, predominantly LOV-based photoreceptors.
My other major research interest is to explore the versatility of nature's extraordinary, modular co-factor, Fe-S cluster, in metalloproteins. The ubiquitous Fe-S clusters have a major role in electron transfer pathway and regulate conformational changes in signaling proteins. Given the limitations of static crystallography and other widely-used spectroscopic techniques, I am interested in observing Fe-S cluster-dynamics by Synchrotron based spectroscopic techniques especially, Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) and recently introduced Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy (NRVS). I study the importance of polypeptide environment in modulating the Fe-S cluster dynamics through normal mode analyses of the Fe-S clusters from proteins as well as inorganic synthetic compounds.
Funding acknowledgement ( Extramural research grants)
EMR, Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India
Basic research in modern biology, Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt of India
DHESTBT (Promotion of Biotechnology), Govt of West Bengal